The voting process at South Africa's largest voting station faced challenges due to the high number of voters on Wednesday. Voters, who had been queuing as early as 5am, were almost deterred from voting when the voting machine malfunctioned.

HIGH NUMBER OF VOTERS

This left the station's voters not able to cast their votes on time because of the delays. A fight nearly broke out after voters threatened to abandon voting and some accused the IEC officials of sabotage. The Joubert Park in Johannesburg CBD voting station has over 15,000 registered voters. Another reason for the delay was the fact that voters were allegedly given instructions to stand in alphabetical order which caused fits of anger to many of the voters.

VOTERS RIGHTS IGNORED

Several people who spoke to ZiMoja said that the IEC was violating their rights. Zoleka Mhlongo, who resides in a flat in Bok and Claim Street in Joubert Park said, "We understand that there are unforeseen issues but they were supposed to solve the problem as soon as possible. This is one of biggest voting station in South Africa and they are aware that we will come out on numbers, they should have prioritised this station at all costs. I'm thinking of leaving and going and continuing with my life as usual. I would have loved to vote and exercise my rights this time but I can't wait any longer, Mhlongo said.

OFFICIALS ATTENDING TO THE MATTER

When IEC communications officer Hlomani Baloyi was contacted about the Joubert Park voting station incident, he said they had officials attending to the matter. "We will release a statement on the matter in due course. We are waiting for a report from our officials on the centre."

Meanwhile, the IEC congratulated South Africans on free and fair elections today. "The elections got off to a steady start with an overwhelming majority of our voting stations - 93% - reported open both online and physically. The remainder of the voting stations opened soon thereafter. Some voting stations delayed opening because of late delivery of materials, delayed escorts by security services or protests by certain community members. In most stations, queues had formed even before the stations opened. This is a testament to the enthusiasm of South Africans to record their political choices. The commission is pleased to report that all our trained staff members reported for duty and started welcoming the first of the 26 million eligible voters at 7am at the 23,292 voting stations across the country. At noon, election operations around the country reported good progress with minimal incidents reported," the statement read.